funeral plans vs life insurance

[kia cat]

having just had the shock of my mother-in-law passing away, I was totally unprepared at the extortionate costs - two NHS doctors to sign a cremation form a couple of hundred quid and so on. I need to be prepared, but which plan do you go for, one with a funeral director or a life insurance plan or just try to save it myself?

[jd_here]

There are some expenses you can't avoid, death certificates, crematorium costs etc., but the biggest expense, the funeral director, can be done away with altogether.

It may be frowned upon by other mourners, but I have asked my family to buy a d-i-y coffin and transport me to my final resting place in either a hired large estate car or my son in law's van.

[albaqwerty]

Sorry to hear of your loss Kia.

From a purely personal opinion, if it's just the funeral itself, I'd enquire at the funeral directors of your choice.

Life Insurance is more expensive the older you are, I believe.

A poster on here, on a similar matter, said that their relative paid 250 pounds per month for a year to a funeral director.

[waterboatman]

Sorry for your loss Kia. I lost my beloved wife 6 weeks ago and was thankful that we had the sense to take out funeral plans with a funeral director 9 years ago. It takes care of all the expenses with the funeral itself but you still have some extras, such as death certificate etc. But that is only a few pounds. i would recommend it.

[joko]

i would go with JD... the pomp and ceremony in merely travelling to and from the church are not important, it the service that matters - not the car or fancy coffin...id rather not saddle my family with massive debts.

whicker coffins look very nice and are much more ecofriendly.

[puternut]

I have gone for a funeral plan through AgeUK and find them quite reasonable with different options - up front total, or on the drip over 5 or 10 years. NOte that your 'survivors' will still be liable for the remaining payments if you go before ir is paid up.

Previously my OH went into local funeral directors to enquire and was told that there was very little cost difference between a 'Green' coffin and a standard one! Not sure if thats true or not. Seems that have the monopoly whatever

[Kayless]

JD is correct here, we are conned by the whole "dignified" funeral process, in reality the funeral directors charge thousands for something unnecessary. I will certainly be telling my boys to take me down the crem in the van and get me barbecued at minimal cost. Then I'll make sure they have monkey to get rat ar5sed with down the club.

[EDDIE51]

It is totally legal once you have the death certificate and cremation release form to just put the body in a body bag , costs £11.50, and transport it to the crematorium leaving it at the back door for disposal. As already said you can use a van or estate car to move the body.
In this circumstance the crematorium have to cremate the body and can only charge the basic cost , around £250. So you can have a fully legal disposal of a body for under £350. The body has no significance as far as I am concerned once you are dead, it is just a lot of rotting organic waste. Funerals are for the living the dead don't know what happens.
As I have said before I will get my remains disposed of as cheaply as possible and have a booze up at my local in memory rather than a funeral.
Has anyone tried ringing round all the local funeral directors to get a quote ? They don't like it if you say that a rival company has quoted £300 cheaper and ask them to beat it ! Why are they not like other businesses?
In my very small home town we have 4 funeral directors along with 6 Charity shops,and 7 beauty saloons/ hair dressers they are virtually the only places left in the town centre .

[EDDIE51]

By the way if the person who arranges the funeral is on benefits they get a funeral grant of £1500 and all funeral directors MUST by law offer a complete funeral for that cost. They call it the ' Basic ' service or similar and they don't like people knowing about it, they will try and sell you a more expensive arrangement but if you stick to your guns they have to do the service out of the funeral grant cost. It is the person arranging the funeral who qualifies for the grant by being on benefits not the deceased. So don't buy a funeral plan or life insurance just make certain someone who is on benefit makes the arrangements.